The Pirate Life
Created | Updated Nov 24, 2004
Its easy to see why men were ready to take the risk of living the pirate's life. The alternative of honest work was bleak. Signing up on a merchant vessel often ment low wages, scant rations, extreme hard work under an abusive captain who could mete out almost any punishment short of death.
So much misinformation has been scribbled over the centuries about pirates, so many movies made, from Errol Flynn as "Captain Blood" to the various Captain Hooks in "Peter Pan", that it might be helpful, in one quick blast, to sweep away some of the common misconceptions.
Pirates rarely buried treasure but drank it or spent it on whores. If they didn't bury it, then that standard, the treasure map, didn't exist either. Not a single authentic treasure map has ever been preserved. As for walking the plank, most pirate victims rarely made such a ceremonious exit.
The captains of pirate ships were not autocrats but commanded with the vote permission of their crew, and pirate captains, in any case, commanded only during chase and battle. All other major decisions, such as where to sail to look for prey or what punishments should be meted out, were voted on. The pirate ship circa 1700 ranked amoung the most democratic institutions in a world that still mostly honored the Divine Right of Kings.
All food and liquor was to be shared equally, a mind-boggling concept for sailors long used to watching officers dine and guzzle for hours on end. Treasure too was divvied on almost equal basis, with perhaps a double share for the captain and quartermaster.
Historians might niggle but some of the concepts of "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" that blossomed almost a century later in the American and French Revolutions, were practiced abord pirate ships. Also a healthy disrespect for authority spurred many of their actions.
And in this disrespect, some of the myths about pirats turn out to be accurate. Pirates cursed a lot and often wore wild outrageous clothes. In some countries sumptuary laws still regulated what the poor could wear, forbidding the non-property owners from donning luxery itmes such as fur collars or wigs or silks. Where laws didn't dictate drab clothes for the poor, custom discouraged anyone not wealthy from ostentatious dressing. Pirates on the other hand, demanded the whole business and outfitted themselves in whatever insane melange of stolen finery they fancied. Pirates were oftn observed teetering ashore in ill-fitting silver-buckled pumps or cinched into tight waistcoats with gold buttons. Sailors, who often had to mend sails, were generally adept at needlework; so, while merchant men might turn a scrap of canvas into tarred trousers, pirates would take the richest striped silk of the East Indies to fashion their wardrobe. One favorite accessory was the bright colored sash draped over one shoulder, with loops to carry two or three pistols. (Gunpowder at sea was so unreliable that extra weapons were a must and re-loading could take a half minute of extreme vunerability.)
It is of course hard to generalize about hundreds of pirate ships that preyed on merchants from the waning days of Caribbean privateering in the 1680s to the mass hangings of the 1720s but from perusing trial testimony and eye witness accounts, certain facts about lives come into focus.
Pirates were mostly young, foul-mouthed men on stolen ships on a constant search for liquor, money and women. More often than not, they terrified under-manned merchant ships into serrender without having to fight. Since few of them ever returned home with their stolen loot, pirats knew they were choosing a lifestyle: "A merry life and a short one," boastd Bartholomew Roberts. Few pirates were married, and some crews even forbade married men.
Drunk, cursing, hungry, horny and violent. Pirates, young men in their crazy clothes, brandishing swords and pistols, expected immediate surrender and were deeply offended by being forced to fight.
When pirates prevailed, they tortured their victims to reveal where any scrap of treasure might be concealed. A simple hoisting and drubbing was most common but some pirate captains delighted in offbeat torture. "Sweating" to take one example, nearly combined sadism and amusement. The fiddler would start up a tune and the pirates poked the victim with forks and daggers to keep him dancing and dancing until he confessed or collapsed.
Pirates often raped the female prisoners. The Admiralty clerks who took depositions from rogues under arrest wrote phrases such as the women were "barbarously used" or "outraged", but the simple fact was "rape". A member of Bertholomew Roberts crew was being led to the gallows in Cape Coast Castle off West Africa. David "Lord" Symson recognised a woman's face in the crowd, one Elizabeth Trengrove, a passenger on a ship they had captured. "I have lain with that bitch three times," bragged the unrepentent pirate, "and now she has come to see me hanged."
So much misinformation has been scribbled over the centuries about pirates, so many movies made, from Errol Flynn as "Captain Blood" to the various Captain Hooks in "Peter Pan", that it might be helpful, in one quick blast, to sweep away some of the common misconceptions.
Pirates rarely buried treasure but drank it or spent it on whores. If they didn't bury it, then that standard, the treasure map, didn't exist either. Not a single authentic treasure map has ever been preserved. As for walking the plank, most pirate victims rarely made such a ceremonious exit.
The captains of pirate ships were not autocrats but commanded with the vote permission of their crew, and pirate captains, in any case, commanded only during chase and battle. All other major decisions, such as where to sail to look for prey or what punishments should be meted out, were voted on. The pirate ship circa 1700 ranked amoung the most democratic institutions in a world that still mostly honored the Divine Right of Kings.
All food and liquor was to be shared equally, a mind-boggling concept for sailors long used to watching officers dine and guzzle for hours on end. Treasure too was divvied on almost equal basis, with perhaps a double share for the captain and quartermaster.
Historians might niggle but some of the concepts of "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity" that blossomed almost a century later in the American and French Revolutions, were practiced abord pirate ships. Also a healthy disrespect for authority spurred many of their actions.
And in this disrespect, some of the myths about pirats turn out to be accurate. Pirates cursed a lot and often wore wild outrageous clothes. In some countries sumptuary laws still regulated what the poor could wear, forbidding the non-property owners from donning luxery itmes such as fur collars or wigs or silks. Where laws didn't dictate drab clothes for the poor, custom discouraged anyone not wealthy from ostentatious dressing. Pirates on the other hand, demanded the whole business and outfitted themselves in whatever insane melange of stolen finery they fancied. Pirates were oftn observed teetering ashore in ill-fitting silver-buckled pumps or cinched into tight waistcoats with gold buttons. Sailors, who often had to mend sails, were generally adept at needlework; so, while merchant men might turn a scrap of canvas into tarred trousers, pirates would take the richest striped silk of the East Indies to fashion their wardrobe. One favorite accessory was the bright colored sash draped over one shoulder, with loops to carry two or three pistols. (Gunpowder at sea was so unreliable that extra weapons were a must and re-loading could take a half minute of extreme vunerability.)
It is of course hard to generalize about hundreds of pirate ships that preyed on merchants from the waning days of Caribbean privateering in the 1680s to the mass hangings of the 1720s but from perusing trial testimony and eye witness accounts, certain facts about lives come into focus.
Pirates were mostly young, foul-mouthed men on stolen ships on a constant search for liquor, money and women. More often than not, they terrified under-manned merchant ships into serrender without having to fight. Since few of them ever returned home with their stolen loot, pirats knew they were choosing a lifestyle: "A merry life and a short one," boastd Bartholomew Roberts. Few pirates were married, and some crews even forbade married men.
Drunk, cursing, hungry, horny and violent. Pirates, young men in their crazy clothes, brandishing swords and pistols, expected immediate surrender and were deeply offended by being forced to fight.
When pirates prevailed, they tortured their victims to reveal where any scrap of treasure might be concealed. A simple hoisting and drubbing was most common but some pirate captains delighted in offbeat torture. "Sweating" to take one example, nearly combined sadism and amusement. The fiddler would start up a tune and the pirates poked the victim with forks and daggers to keep him dancing and dancing until he confessed or collapsed.
Pirates often raped the female prisoners. The Admiralty clerks who took depositions from rogues under arrest wrote phrases such as the women were "barbarously used" or "outraged", but the simple fact was "rape". A member of Bertholomew Roberts crew was being led to the gallows in Cape Coast Castle off West Africa. David "Lord" Symson recognised a woman's face in the crowd, one Elizabeth Trengrove, a passenger on a ship they had captured. "I have lain with that bitch three times," bragged the unrepentent pirate, "and now she has come to see me hanged."
